Feb 3 Reuters Big Tech led U.S. markets on a sharp rebound to kick off 2023. The message from their earnings on Thursday not so fast.

Apple Inc, Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com all posted results for the endofyear quarter that left a sour taste in investors39; mouths. The reports renewed questions about global economic demand, the effect of higher interest rates and whether the market39;s January rally got ahead of itself.

Nascent signs that consumer spending was beginning to rebound in China were not enough to change that.

Apple, the world39;s largest publicly traded company, fell short of expectations, hurt by lower iPhone sales and production disruptions in China. Amazon said operating profits could fall this quarter due to lower demand, and Alphabet39;s online advertisers cut back their spend as well.

Shares of the three companies dropped after the results were released and were expected to drag the market lower Friday following a euphoric rally Thursday.

Maybe the tech stocks rallied a little bit too much into these numbers, so the market will be taking a deep breath and saying, 39;OK, well these companies aren39;t bulletproof,39; said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company in Atlanta, Georgia.

These three firms and Microsoft, the four U.S. companies with trilliondollar market values, have led the broadmarket SP 500 in 2023. The index is up nearly 9 yeartodate, with Amazon gaining 34. Big Tech surged Thursday following a strong…